As a citizen of the United States of America, I believe in
the wisdom of our founders. I find
their approach to the formation of our nation, built first upon a reasoned
declaration of independence, followed by a hard fought Constitution outlining
the design and powers of a new form of interdependent government. It is designed to function with a range
of human experience and the input of the citizenry. It's all really a simple, yet brilliant
construction. It even came with a
mechanism to allow for its own amending as times change.
One of the most significant in history is the 22nd amendment
that established the term limit of 2 terms for any individual in the role of
President leading the Executive branch of the government. Recall if you will that this was in
part a reaction to the powers accrued by Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the
course of his 5 terms through the middle of the 20th century. And yet the stability that his
administration brought to a nation besieged by first an economic crisis of
unprecedented proportions and then an escalated international conflict that
rose to the level of a second world war was no doubt the very thing--his
stabilizing presence--that was most crucial to our victory on both fronts.
I would even argue that today with life expectancies being
what they have become, this amendment should be amended up to 3 terms. But that might also be a little Obama
nostalgia syndrome already kicking in....
Today, some people are now arguing for terms limits for
members of Congress. Some fifteen
states have even enacted laws doing this very thing for members of their state
legislatures.
And I am here to tell you that I am NOT a fan of this sort
of thing. There is a term limit
already built into the process.
It's called an election.
The function of a government's legislative process is a
complicated one. It benefits from
a range of players and those with institutional memory are crucial to the
process. In states with limits,
most lawmakers cannot serve more than 8 years. When the power no longer resides in the elected official, it
goes to someone else. It goes to
people with experience and know how to get the job done and those people are
the lobbyists and paid staffers.
Suddenly the chief of staff with the most experience becomes a very
pricy commodity and she or he--an UNELECTED worker bee--has the REAL
POWER. Their agendas never come to
light, never get scrutinized by the public and are not subject to the recall of
the vote. Term limits are a lousy
idea.
And here's another reason, term limits are unnecessary. Lets look at the Senate. There are 100 Senators who serve for 6
years terms each. The average
tenure in the current senate is 22 years; however only 20% have served that
long or longer. 45% are currently
serving in the first term! Nearly
half of the Senate are freshmen--is it any wonder that they're so
dysfunctional?
The twelve longest serving Senators by seniority are:
1) Patrick Leahy of Vermont (Democrat) 42 years of wisdom
2) Orin Hatch of Utah (Republican) 40 years
3) Thad Cochran of Mississippi (Republican) 38 years
4) Charles Grassley of Iowa (Republican) 36 years
5) Mitch McConnell of Kentucky (Republican) 34 years
The class of 1986 with 30 years in each:
6) John McCain of Arizona (Republican)
7) Barbara Mikulski of Maryland (Democrat)
8) Harry Reid of Nevada (Democrat)
9) Richard Shelby of Alabama (Republican)
The class of 1992 with 24 years each
10) Barbara Boxer of California (Democrat)
11) Diane Feinstein of California (Democrat)
12) Patty Murray of Washington (Democrat)
Eight of these 12 are up for re-election this November and 3
of them have chosen to retire (thus ending their terms by another viable
means).
When you look at who the most outrageously behaved and
partisan members of the Senate are--not-with-standing the majority's current
leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky listed above--you will discover just how
inexperienced they are. Granted,
sometimes I like that, but sometimes it's downright embarrassing and stupid.
My list on this score would include:
Tom Cotton of Arkansas (Republican) with just 2 years of
experience
Ted Cruz of Texas (Republican) with 4 years into his first
term
Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts (Democrat) with just 4
years into her tenure
Marco Rubio of Florida (Republican) just completing his
first 6 year term
And in the Senate, seniority represents power in terms of
committee assignments. These
states have the least.
With a combined total of 6 years of experience between BOTH
Senators:
Massachusetts
Nebraska
West Virginia
With 8 years of experience total:
Arkansas
Colorado
And with just 10 years of combined experience:
Connecticut
Hawaii
Indiana
North Dakota
Wisconsin
The states with the deepest benches are
1) Vermont with 52 years total
2) Alabama with 50 years total
3) California with 48 years total
4) Mississippi with 47 years total
5) Utah with 46 years total
6 & 7) Maryland & Washington with 40 years total
each
8 & 9) Iowa & Kentucky with 38 years total each
10 & 11) Arizona and Nevada with 34 years total each
And we can already guarantee that California, Maryland and
Nevada will be knocked out of the upper tiers after this November's election,
and by the will of the people Vermont, Utah, Washington, Iowa, Kentucky and
Arizona are all up for that possibility, too. I've even contributed some scratch to support such a change
in Arizona and Iowa! The
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